Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1887-02-17
THE lNSTALMENT PLAN.

How Merchants Protect Themselves
Against Questionable Would-Be Pur-
chasers.
s.Do you suffer much in your business
from the tricks of swindlers. profess
sional or otherwise?" asked reporter
of a member of leading firm of fur
niture dealers in this city lately.
mo. we do not to any but very
small extent" was the reply. At one
time we did experience frequent and
rather heavy losses, but we have so
perfected our system now that we are
practically safe.
''How is that?'
"Well, do you see that box THEREOF
pointing to an Office at the end of the
store. 'The men there are specially
employed as detectives, to make inqui-
ries about would-be purchasers, who
want furniture on the installment sys-
tenn and look after our interests where
goods have been thus obtained, and L
venture to say that they equal in
ability Pinkerton's detectives or any
others YOU could name. The thing is
done in this way. A man comes in and
wants 5000 or $500 worth of furniture,
paying a small sum down and the rest
monthly. We inquire of him what is
his position, what are his prospects,
his family embarrassments, and so
forth. If his replies are satisfactory
we take his deposit But before the
furniture is put in one of our detec-
tives goes around and takes care to
verify all the strangers statements.
He does this in a quiet, practical way,
never using the firm name, of course,
and going about it in such manner
that the customer. if every thing is all
right, will never hear that any inqui-
ries have been made. But if the story
told us proves in any way incorrect,
we apprise the customer of what we
have learned, and ask him to explain
the facts. In nine cases out of ten
no explanation is offered; he calls, Or
more usually sends, for his deposit,
and there is an end of it.
1--WE keep detailed account of all
the people who have dealt with us,
with notes as to their financial condi-
ton, and when they have once found
them trustworthy we are always ready
to deal with them again. This answers
very well in general, but we had mar
row escape quite recently. A man
named jackson asked for heavy
consignment, and referred us
to our books, where we
found that he had dealt with us some
time ago, and was marked AL. We
were upon the point of letting him
have the goods without further ques-
ton, but the character and quantity of
the order did not seem quite to tally
with his profession. Inquiries were
made at the address he had given, and
the interesting fact was speedily
developed that, although the name and
initials were the same, he was totally
different man from the one we had
previously dealt with. 1t was, in fact,
a very clever case of PRESERVATION. In
answer to our written query of why
is this?' he sent a woman to get his
deposit, and we heard no more of him.
"a man came here only week or
two ago; seemed like gentleman,
and talked very plausibly. He wanted
us to furnish house for him, and he
would give us his note for the cash.
When we declined he offered to get the
note Endorsed by a well known city
man who is good for 100000. To that
we replied that he could borrow the
money from his hacker at 10 per cent,
as we would allow him so much off the
price for cash. But he didn't feel equal
to that, and went. o, yes, we get lots
of folk in here every day, almost, who
think they can trick us, and who mis-
represent themselves, but they never
do much good. What class trouble us
most in this way? Well, the people
who want to seem much bigger than
they are, and, of all other folks, must
say the lawyers are most given to it. y
mo, we have no detective bureau
said member of another large firm.
1--WE should need small army if we
once began that. We are not often
bitten, either, and don't care to talk
about our losses when we are. We had
one big loss some time back. when we
put several thousand dollars worth of
stuff into house on the West Side. 1t
was all shipped off to St. Louis the
night before the first payment fell due,
and sold, some of it there and some in
Cincinnati and Chicago. We afterward
found out that the same folks had
played similar game elsewhere, but
we never caught them. We can gen.
orally size a man up before we have
talked to him ten minutes, and as we
never let any furniture pass out of our
hands unpaid for unless we are quite
satisfied, you can see that we are pref
ty safe ~ Y. Commercial AdUer
ttSer.
DRIED DOGFiSH.
A Profit able But Exceedingly Ma1odorous
Industry of Santa Barbary.